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Does your puppy turn his nose up at his own chow—because he wants some of whatever it is that you’re having? A new study finds that, when it comes to food, dogs recognize human social signals about what's good. The work is in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. [Sarah Marshall-Pescin et al., "Do Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) Make Counterproductive Choices Because They Are Sensitive to Human Ostensive Cues?"]
Researchers let pet dogs choose between two plates, one with a single piece of food and the other with six pieces. Unsurprisingly, the animals generally went for the larger portion. But when a human being showed a clear liking for the smaller plate, the canines likewise went for the skimpier choice. The dogs apparently recognized and responded to the humans' social cues.
And not all cues were equally effective. When the human approached but did not touch the smaller portion, dogs ignored the attention-drawing gesture. For a social signal to influence behavior, it had to demonstrate intention. And the most effective cues also involved communication, such as looking from the food to the dog and back while talking encouragingly. For dogs, choosing a bite may depend on another's bark.
—Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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9 Comments
Add CommentThis isn't news. Everyone with a dog knows this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEver leave a roast on the table?
I had a cat that would only eat what it thought I was eating, so I had to put the cats dish on the table first, then pretend to be eating it, then the cat would eat it and I could eat in peace...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, if this was a real study, there wasn't enough details in the article to adequately allow the reader to form an opinion on the study; for instance,"human being showed a clear liking" clear to whom, by what standards? We've all watched Homer Simpson enough to know how a dog hears: blah blah blah food blah blah. This word burp of an article is just too darn short to be useful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, it is not that simple. For instance my dog can be coaxed to observe food that is consumed by me, but he already knows whether he likes it or not, and with nose to sample, he will not eat it even if I will, if he does not like it; but that's just on weekdays; weekends he is even more complicated, and it seems to have nothing to do with anything humans can think of, because - oh my god, - dogs think like dogs! Meaning we have no clue.
We cannot possible understand an animal as intelligent and talented as dogs; they are head and shoulders above us in so many categories; they live in a sensory world, we pretty much just ignore things. Their preoccupation with urine and feces and a universe of smells simply unavailable to us, belie any attempts to use an anthropomorphic approach to explaining their behaviors. They're dogs; that's all I need to know!
I agree with you; my dog hates fish and I like it. When I eat fish, my dog looks at me as if I am crazy or something, or as if he is saying, "are you crazy, that tastes and smells horrible. How can you eat that nasty stuff," and then turn around and eat his own vomit. Even though I consider him my one and only child still living at home; we are totally different - he is a dog and I am a human, and that allows me to realize that he did not spring from my groin, nor I from his. We are of our own self and always will be human and K9, and I will always share my food that he likes with him and I never want him to share his food with me unless it is a fresh kill and I can prepare it to my standards. Our pets have been with us for thousands of years and most of us consider them our family, as I do my dog, and I do not appreciate someone telling me that I should not feed him my food when there are starving humans somewhere in distant lands who could use that food more than my dog can. To hell with them, I will feed my family to my ability and they can do the same with their family and stay the hell out of my and my dog's life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no attempt at an "antrhopomorphic approach" here. This is a study of dog behaviour and confirms what many other studies have shown, that dogs are uniquely adapted to life with humans! In other words thinking like a dog is thinking with a heavy bias toward what your human companions show a preference for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's nothing in the article that says the dog's food choices differed in anything but quantity and whether or not humans were more interested in one than another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd, the whole point of the article is that we apparently do have at least one clue to how dogs think: they prefer food we prefer.
If you really want or need more in depth info you could always use the short cut in the printed artical.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot any more.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdogs might well follow suit
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